If you have planted your seeds and would like to share the information on your success, please send me an e-mail with the details and I will post your experience on the website....... Jose Puras

Who said
it was easy ?

Customers
speakout !

Tips
on growing Culantro

I
receive many e-mails requesting information on How to Grow
Culantro. I have been handling these e-mails on a one on one
basis and will continue to do so if needed. Here are the
directions for easily growing your Culantro. First bear in mind
that Culantro likes the shade and will not
survive Full Sun. Also it loves moisture NOT wetness! With these two things
in mind here are the tips on how to grow Culantro.

Many
thanks for the Culantro seeds. After reading a lot of
material on them, I was concerned about germination
problems. Solution found included a clear plastic box
that the local bakery used for two dozen cookies. Punched
a few holes in the lid and bottom and then filled the
bottom half with potting mix. After three weeks in the
shade, volia. Believe there was better than 90%
germination. Am now planning to try many more of Daisy
Martinez's (Daisy Cooks) recipes.

Jose! You'll
be happy to know the Cuban culantro sprouted for me! I
sowed it July 1 with no pretreatment (no GA-3)--wanted to see
what would happen just "straight". Sowed it in a
3"x3" pot filled with the usual seed starter mix (seed
start in a bag plus plenty of extra vermiculite and perlite--that
stuff's too mushy without the additives) and a 1/8"-3/16"
layer of BABY chick grit. You
might mention that the chicken grit is quite fine, the kind used
for baby chicks, not for hens. Can use the latter, but the
chunks are larger, and tiny seeds could get lost/washed out under
these "boulders" (from their perspective!). The
fine grit works best for me.

Sowed the culantro
right on top, watered it in. Put it in the starter (flat
with clear plastic dome), stuck it under the lights in the
basement. Temps down there are around 70 or so. Has
been too brutally hot and dry here for me to even venture doing
any such thing outside; they'd just cook.

Took 2.5 weeks to
sprout--I was beginning to wonder if I'd get sprouts or just
rotted seed. The seed stained the grit slightly with a
brownish wash--some species do and some don't, and sometimes this
is the beginning of the end! Anyway, after two weeks I
thought I saw roots heading downwards from a couple of seeds, but
because they're white, so is the grit, everything's so small,
and I have middle-aged eyesight, I waited to be sure. Now I
have quite a few sprouted, although they're still TINY. The seed
leaves on the largest of them are maybe 1/8".
Germination seems really good, with a fairly full pot. I
just did 1 packet--didn't want to overload the pot and wanted
more available in case I needed to fool around some more. So
mission successful!

Tecla

Here are her
instructions:

Depending on what's available, I
just buy bags of anything labeled Seed Starter Mix in K-mart-type
stores. It's heavy on the milled peat. Hoffman's
brand is available around here, and I often use it--but NOT their
stuff with nutrients added. Am a bit nervous about that one--I
suppose it would be fine for tomatoes and peppers, but I'm wary
of it for some of the lean-mean-loving perennials I like to grow
from seed. My theory: when I want to fertilize, I can
always use fish emulsion. I did get a huge (50#) bag of some non-Hoffman's
brand at a local garden center this spring, and that was what I
used this time. But they're all the same. I add
a LOT of perlite, figuring I'm
better off watering more frequently than waterlogging seeds or
having my seedlings rot at the soil line. Probably 1/4 or so of the mix is perlite.
The vermiculite may or may not get added, depending on if I have
any around, and I usually don't dump in anywhere nearly as much
of it as perlite. Anyway, I mix the stuff up in a plastic bucket
with a lid (kitty litter containers, well-washed 5# laundry soap
containers), add some water, enough to moisten but not enough to
create "mud", and make a mess mixing it.
Then I let it sit for 12-24 hours so the moisture can penetrate
evenly.I really think the surface grit is the sprouting
answer, though, as it allows the seed to have great drainage.
Since
culantro's an eryngium and all the hardy versions thereof are
sensitive to rot, wouldn't surprise me that culantro is also
a bit sensitive.
The addition of the perlite to the milled peat is important for
the subsequent growth, as it provides such nice drainage. Please
feel free to share this info with the world--no problem!!

by ...Tecla Loup, , July 2002

6/24/01

Hello Jose,

A quick note on the
recao seeds that you requested. Planted seeds on 5/27, a cool sunny
day, (mid seventies here in Queens,N.Y).Seedlings started to
appear on Thursday 6/21.Used MiracleGro as per your instructions .The
weather here in Queens has ranged from the low
seventies to the mid eighties for most of June.Provided shade and
a watering schedule as you suggested.So far so good.

From the two packets of
seeds about 100+ plants have come up.They measure a little
bit more than 3.5 inches in lenght.We have not harvested any as
of this time,waiting for them to get a bit more mature. One quick
question,when to the recao plants go to seed?

Thanks,

Ernie

Jose,
Como estas! I purchased some culantro seeds about a year
ago. They did not
germinate, I relayed the process to you, you sent me some more
seeds. I
waited until April, in Central Kentucky, to plant them in a deep
12" pot
with generic potting soil. I sprinkled the seeds on top and
"dusted" them
with soil. I kept them very moist for several months with
out any luck. At
this point I gave up. I left the pot outside on a table
with full sun
without watering it. Around August it had been in the 90's
for about a
week, it then rained for several days and returned to the 90's.
Several
weeks later I saw germinating sprouts, when I squished one
between my
fingers, I smelled the peppery, pungent aroma I had come to love
while in
Panama. I brought the pot inside and kept it under a "grow
lamp" with 24
hour light. It grew very well for months. I then
bought a timer and now I
give it 18 hours of light a day. I trim the "gone to seed"
growth and a few
leaves every 2-3 weeks. I coarse chop it and freeze it
covered in water.
Freezing it in leaf form it does not survive, it will freezer
burn and loose
all its flavor. I have the same 10 plants in the pot and
they survived all
winter and plan to put them outside as soon as the weather stays
above 75
degrees. The lamp keeps the surface of the soil at about that
temperature.
I will be ordering more seeds soon and will send along a snapshot
of my
culantro pot. Thank you for your product, support and web
page.

Kipp Whitelaw

Dealing
with Slugs and Snails........

If
anyone has slug or snail problems they need to put out slug &
snail bait around the planted area. The slugs and snails
love these plants and they also love to eat Cilantro especially
when they are just sprouts. They will eat the leaves of the
mature plants leaving holes in them. I've raised culantro
since 1984 and have them where they catch the morning sun and is
very moist. These are the areas that the slugs and snails
thrive in so you need to be aware of this. My plants were
getting very thin and the new plants didn't seem to be growing
and then I remembered about the slugs in this place and when I
had put the bait out I was very surprised on how many slugs that
were in my herbs. Now my new plants are growing again
and I should have a nice area again. The slug bait I used is Bug
Geta or I bought the slug bait from Wal Mart it either comes in
pellets or powder. I like the pellets better since it lasts
a lot longer.

Sus
Murakoa, Hawaii

My
Culantro planter ..........( Inverted garbage can tops with
miracle gro potting mix and plenty of water and shade with a
temperature around 80 deg. F )